Ralf Stelzner

Ralf Stelzner (15 November 1888-19 March 1923) was a politician of the Weimar Republic era of Germany.

Biography
Ralf Stelzner was born on 15 November 1888 in the town of Freital, 5 miles to the southwest of Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony (present-day Germany). Stelzner was born to two communist Protestant German parents that were arrested in Dresden during riots in the 1880s against industrialization, and they moved to Freital in exile. Stelzner picked up on his parents' beliefs and joined a youth organization that supported communism.

Stelzner became a member of the Reichswehr military in 1906 and rose to the rank of  Stabsgefreiter (Specialist)  in 1910, and was a  Sergeant at the time of the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Stelzner refused to join the forces on the front lines and attempted to shoot himself in the foot to escape the army, but he severed an artery and was discharged from the army to go to a hospital. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life. While in civilian life, Stelzner studied to become a lawyer and became a local politician in the Dresden metropolitan area. He joined the German Communist Party in the parliament of the new Weimar Republic in 1918 and was a supporter of proletarian revolution in the country.

On 19 March 1923, Stelzner was shot in a drive-by shooting by four men driving a four-dour luxury limousine, taking fifteen bullets from an MP18. He died of his wounds at a nearby hospital in one of the many political assassinations of the era.